Rushing Through the Universe
by Cmdr's Monkey
Summary: Rush, Chloe, Eli and Volker get left behind after losing track of time. Now they must race through the Stargates to catch up with Destiny before she leaves the galaxy in 100 jumps. A 100 Drabble series.
1. Desperate

_New series using the prompt table meant for Sherlock Holmes, heh. FYI, I renamed the original "RTtU" collection to "Rushing Through Destiny" because I wanted to use "RTtU" for this drabble series. The title is more appropriate for this plot bunny than it is for the collection. Thought to let ya'll know in case you got confused. Oh and I'm gonna do Rush's accent! Weee! Go me!_

**[1] Desperate**

He's running. They're all running as fast as their legs and feet could take them.

"We're not going to make it!" exclaimed one of them behind him as he, Rush, led the desperate team back toward the stargate after they had lost track of time studying the pictographic language of an alien ruin. His fingers are dancing over the remote, quickly selecting each of the seven symbols that made up the gate address to _Destiny. _But even as they neared the ancient ring, he already knew they were too late.

Destiny was gone as her address disappeared from the screen.


	2. Angry

**[2] Angry**

"This is all your fault!" exclaimed an irate Scotsman at Eli who did his best to keep his ground as the scientist vented his anger. They were all angry, but mostly at their situation rather than at each other.

"My fault?" whined the young man.

"If yew weren't so bloody engrossed over Chloe, yew would have noticed we were runnin' out of time!"

"Come on now, Rush," Volker pipped in tentatively. "It's not like we cannot catch up to _Destiny_, right?"

Rush's angry retort fell short as a contemplative look crossed his face before glancing back at the inert stargate behind them.


	3. Exhausted

**[3] Exhausted**

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Chloe asked next to Rush as he sifted through the dozen gate addresses that appeared on the remote's screen. The scientist grunted in reply before selecting one of the addresses and started dialing.

"Yes," he finally answered. "After the last time yew, Eli an' Scott were left behind, I programmed the remotes with a map of the gates that _Destiny _will come across in her path. All we have ta do is follow until we come across one that detects her."

"Can we rest first, I'm exhausted?" spoke up Eli.


	4. Uneasy

**[4] Uneasy**

They've already been through a handful of stargates since being left behind. Losing the kino was bound to happen at some point in their journey. Rush had hoped it would not happen until some time later, but even he knew their luck could not hold out forever.

"I'm not going through," declined Volker as Rush looked at him pointedly.

"Somebody has ta make sure it's safe."

"Look, can't we like draw straws or something?" the astrophysicist suggested as everyone stared uneasily at the event horizon.

"Ugh, men..." Chloe rolled her eyes and before Eli or the others could stop her, she snatched Rush's radio and stepped through the horizon.


	5. Alone

**[5] Alone**

Of all the planet's they had visited thus far, they had yet to come across one that was so barren and red that it reminded Volker of Mars. The only difference between this world and the Martian planet was the fact that there was a blue atmosphere with breathable air.

And earthquakes.

"Just hold on an' we'll have yeh out in a jiffy!" he heard the Scottish scientist yell from somewhere above him.

Volker did his best to not allow the walls of the small cavern he found himself in choke him as he waited alone for rescue.


	6. Bleeding

**[6] Bleeding**

"Ow! That hurts!" Eli complained and tried to jerk his bleeding arm away from Chloe as she cleaned the small gash with purified water.

"Maybe next time you won't try to befriend the local wildlife no matter how cute it looks," Chloe chided softly, amusement in her voice.

"Come on! It looked like Gizmo, how was I suppose to know it turned out to be a vicious little, furry... thing?" Chloe and the others gave him a blank look.

"Gizmo?" Chloe asked.

"Oh come on! Gremlins? Seriously, haven't you guys ever watched movies?"


	7. Haunted

**[7] Haunted**

The gray, swirling mist crept up upon them as they rested in the makeshift camp beside the stargate. Doctor Rush was poking at the innards of the gate itself trying to figure out what went wrong when he tried to dial the next address and the gate refusing to connect for three of them.

That had been hours ago.

"This place gives me the creeps," Eli commented as he huddled next to the small fire.

Something howled like a banshee off in the distance and even Rush looked up from his work to stare out at the haunted looking forest around them.


	8. Helpless

**[8] Helpless**

"Just because I'm the only female present does not mean that I intentionally choose to become the damsel in distress!" exclaimed a frustrated Chloe as they all walked back toward the stargate. "Stop giggling, Eli."

"What? I can't help it!" the young man tried to hide the amused smirk that wanted to present itself. Rush and Volker were having no qualms in allowing their own to show. "You looked... hilarious covered in mud and angry."

She glared at him and proceeded to smear what little mud she had left on her across his face.


	9. Dark

**[9] Dark**

"We're in a structure," concluded Rush as he shined his torch upward until the beam of light bounced off of a ceiling too far for even the tallest ladder to reach. "A really large structure it seems."

It was also pitch black inside.

"With things that go bump in the night, no doubt too." Eli shifted uncomfortably and he felt Chloe grip his arm a little tighter as she gasped. The three men followed her gaze until they spotted what she had seen.

Glowing red eyes.

Lots of them.

"Um, Rush... the gate?" Volker said nervously.

"Three steps ahead of yeh!"


	10. Trapped

**[10] Trapped**

"The gate, Rush!" Volker cried as the red eyes drew closer to them.

"I can only dial so fast! Oh bugger..." Rush swore and stepped back and away from the stargate as a set of red eyes leapt through the inert ring and landed in front of the scientist. In the dim glow of the torch, Rush could see that the alien was some kind of machine. Humanoid in shape and covered in metallic sheets that were sculpted into shape to give the appearance of muscle and clothing, the thing looked formidable.

"We're trapped!" Chloe screamed.

Volker winced.

Rush dialed the last chevron.


	11. Terrified

**[11] Terrified**

A rush of adrenaline shot through him as his arms flailed about in a desperate attempt to keep his balance as he teetered on the edge of a cliff that the stargate should not have been resting on. When he managed to keep himself from falling over the edge or back into the event horizon of the active wormhole behind him, Doctor Rush realized a little too late that the others were coming in hot.

"Oh no..." he muttered just as Eli came through and smashed into him.

Rush cried out in terror as he fell forward, only at the last second did he manage to grab onto the cliff edge to keep himself from falling to his death.

"Rush!"


	12. Sick

**[12] Sick**

"He has a fever," Chloe explained to the Scotsman off to the side. Rush glanced at the prone Volker and she could see the concern for the astrophysicist hidden underneath the mask the scientist always wore. "I'm not TJ so I don't know what I can do for him other than wait it out."

"T'was bound ta happen sooner or later," Rush said and turned his gaze to the remote in his hand. "Pickin' up somethin' on one of these worlds. We've all probably got it, Volker's constitution just happens to be weaker."

"Hopefully not too weak."

"Aye."


	13. Loathsome

**[13] Loathsome**

"Disgusting," Chloe made a face at the dead creature Eli had actually managed to capture and kill. Rush looked up from his laptop from where he sat beside the campfire. Volker was still unconscious from the fever-induced illness he had contracted and Chloe had been watching over him when the animal had been dumped on the ground.

"We got to eat," Eli said non-plussed and crouched down to see what he could do with the animal. He had to admit that it looked revolting and wondered if it would taste good at all. "Course if somebody hadn't lost the backpack with the rations..."

"Don't look at me! I'm not the one who dialed a stargate that was on a cliff!"

"Oh, aye, let's blame the scientist that saved our arses from the machines, why don't we?"


	14. Freezing

**[14] Freezing**

"Can we go somewhere that's warmer?" yelled Eli over the roar of the blizzard that assaulted the huddled group, their backs against the side of the stargate's ramp. All around them was nothing but glacier ice and snow.

Rush flexed his stiffening fingers as he hurried to dial the stargate again so they could escape this frozen world. Ice and snow clung to his beard and hair and it did not help that the blizzard was chapping his lips. "I canna guarantee that the next world _will_ be warmer, Eli!"

"It's gotta be better than this place!"


	15. Burning

**[1****5] Burning**

"When I asked for a warmer place, I meant something like a tropical paradise," said Eli as he shed his outer jacket to try and give himself some relief from the burning heat of the molten world they found themselves on. "Not Mustafar!"

Volker coughed on the stagnate air they had to breath. "It could have been worse! The gate could have been in a pool of lava instead of on an island surrounded by lava!"

"Why would the ancients place a gate here of all places?" asked Chloe just as Rush managed to open another wormhole for them.

"The planet probably was not always like this," the Scotsman answered before stepping through the event horizon.


	16. Lonely

**[1****6] Lonely**

Dale Volker came over and sat down beside Rush and offered him a tin cup of water. The scientist gladly accepted the offering as he looked over the data on his laptop. "You know its not healthy to sit alone all the time," Volker tried to start a conversation with the man.

Across from them, sitting quietly to themselves beside the fire and softly chatting were Eli and Chloe. She laughed at something he had said that gave him a pleased smile. Rush looked up from his work to stare at the two friends a bit nostalgically before sighing heavily.

"I'll always be alone, Dale."


	17. Heroic

**[1****7] Heroic**

"Chloe? Chloe!" Eli desperately called to their companion after she did not radio back when it had been her turn to go through the stargate to make sure it was safe for them. "She's not answering!"

Rush pursed his lips and Volker glanced at him in concern. Both men knew that their method of traveling through the stargate network was like Russian Roulette. One of them was going to get unlucky and find the bullet that would kill them.

"Rush! What are you doing!" Volker exclaimed when the Scotsman rushed forward.

"Somethin' heroically stupid!" the scientist replied.


	18. Guilty

**[1****8] Guilty**

Chloe tried to apologize to Rush for the thousandth time and again he merely brushed it off as if it were unnecessary. "But I almost got you killed," she added when he wouldn't accept it again.

"But yeh didn't," he simply answered and plopped a piece of red fruit into his mouth to taste it. He immediately spit it back out. "Yes, t'was a risk to my life I took to save yours, Chloe, but it was a risk I was willin' ta take. Yew need not be guilty for somethin' yeh had no control over, lass."


	19. Crippled

**[1****9] Crippled**

"It's hurt," stated Chloe while she knelt beside a whimpering humanoid creature covered in fur and with a short snout. If it had claws or anything else dangerous, neither of them could see or tell. As far as any of them could see, it simply looked like a harmless alien with a broken leg.

"Should we even be messing with it?" Eli protested uncertainly. "I mean it kinda looks like an ape and we all know what happens when humans end up on a planet of apes!"

"That was a future Earth, actually," Volker corrected and Eli stared at him in surprise.


	20. Missing

**[****20] Missing**

"Where's Rush?" Volker asked after they had arrived on the next planet when the now missing scientist had given the green light for them to come through. But when all three had appeared from the event horizon, the scientist was no where to be seen.

"Um... maybe that has something to do with his disappearing act?" Eli pointed off to their right at a monolithic structure just barely visible over the tree line. If it had not been for the backdrop of three moons in the night sky, they probably would not have seen it. "You know him and aliens."

"Rush?" Volker called over the radio as the trio made their way toward the structure. He grew concerned when the Scotsman did not answer.


	21. Motionless

**[****21] Motionless**

He stood motionless against the setting moons, lost in thought atop of a ruined structure amongst dozens that formed what appeared to have been a small city. Crumbling towers mostly remained with a few smaller temple like buildings here and there. What intrigued him the most and what kept him from answering Volker over the radio was the writing on the walls.

"Rush! There you are, you had us worried," said Chloe when they finally caught up to and found him mulling over the mystery of the ruins.

"These ruins..." Rush breathed in quiet excitement. "They're Ancient."

"Well yeah... they're really old," said Eli.

"No... I think he means it was built by the Ancients," Volker said as he ran a hand over the familiar script.

* * *

_Those who are curious: http: / / community. ageofconan. com/ conan /frontend /files /CONTENT /ruins3. jpg _

_No spaces_


	22. Filthy

**[****22] Filthy**

When the stargate brought them to a world atop of a small waterfall and lagoon, they took advantage of the opportunity to refill their canteens and clean themselves up.

"Hopefully we can find a way down," Volker said as he looked over the edge of the waterfall.

"There is a fast way down."

"Eli, what are you doing?" Rush asked when he noticed the young man was stripping down to his boxers.

"I don't want my clothes to get wet." They heard Chloe giggling behind them and Eli flexed his biceps for her before stepping up to the edge.

"Yeh don't even know how deep it is!" Rush protested once he understood what the young man was going to do.

"Looks deep enough to me," Eli replied and leapt off the edge with a cry of, "Cannonball!"


	23. Demented

**[****23] Demented**

"You are crazy," Eli said into the radio as he pressed himself up against the alcove he made in the vortex created cave. "This is so not going to work and I am going to die."

"Stop your whinin', Eli. Do yew have the remote I sent through?" Rush's voice came over the radio and Eli lifted up the handheld device, its glowing screen adding more illumination to the puddle's own glow.

"Yeah, I have it."

"As soon as the gate shuts down, dial back ta us. It should be the first address in the list," the scientist continued. "Yew only have a few minutes of oxygen, so don't waste time."

"You're still crazy!"


	24. Bitter

**[****24] Bitter**

Doctor Nicholas Rush rubbed at his hands, trying to restore feeling into his fingers as he glared at the stargate crystals after one of them had shorted out and stung him with an electro-shock so powerful that it had knocked him off his feet. "This is the second time we've come across a stargate that would not dial out," he said in bitter frustration.

"I wonder why it does that," Volker inquired curiously as he probed inside the open maintenance hatch.

"Stop pokin' around unless yeh know what your doin'!" Rush exclaimed and became surprised when Volker stood his ground against him and spoke in a bitter, resenting tone.

"I may have a doctorate in astrophysics, but I've been around enough stargates to know how to not break one, Rush!"


	25. Unconscious

**[****25] Unconscious**

"**Rush!**"

"_Oh god, we're going to die!"_

"_No we're not!"_

"_They killed Rush!"_

"_Cha'nu kata mo'nah!"_

"_It's just two aliens, we can take them?"_

"_Two big aliens with sticks that shoot million dollar special effects that really hurt you mean!"_

"_Throw the backpack at one and tackle the other!"_

"_OW! It bit me!"_

"_I got him! I got him! No wait, he's got me! Help, Volker!"_

"_I got you!"_

"_Ouch, that hurts!"_

"_You're such a big baby, Eli."_

"_Well they were really big aliens!"_

"If yew three are done playin' around with the aliens, yeh can come an' help me to my feet at any time!"

"Rush! You're alive!"

"Oof! Eli... I appreciate that yeh care, but please, I've been shocked remember?"

"Opps, sorry!"


	26. Plead

**[****26] Plead**

Chloe looked over Doctor Rush's shoulder as he studied on his laptop the photos of the Ancient ruins Eli had taken for him with his iPhone. Every time they stopped to camp for the night, he would always sit alone and work on his laptop studying the writing.

"So what does it say?" she asked of him.

Rush scowled at the intrusion. "Read it for yourself."

"I can't."

"Then learn how," he quipped.

She frowned at him. "Can you teach me then?"

"I'm busy."

Chloe was not deterred by his answer and sat down next to him. She was not going to beg him, but neither was she going to give up either. Rush looked at her with annoyance. "Teach me as you work then."


	27. Flee

**[****27] Flee**

"Run!" hissed Volker as he and Eli stared up in shocked terror of a huge beast taller than a bus and just as long.

"Running sounds good!" They both sprang to their feet and fled back toward the stargate, leaving behind what they had been gathering in favor of saving their lives.

The beast followed with a honking roar.

"Rush! Dial the stargate!" cried Volker into the radio.

"What's wrong?" came the answer.

"Dinosaur!" Eli screamed into the radio before Volker could answer. Both men emerged from the tree line, a moment later the large beast crashed through with another honking roar.


	28. Hide

_This one was inspired by a DnD encounter long ago when I was still a noob. Yeah, don't do what Chloe (I) did. Bad things happen._

**[****28] Hide**

Their luck as of late with alien encounters of the third kind had been down for the last dozen or so worlds. Rush believed they had entered a territory with a race that utilized the stargates to their advantage. How they managed to actually operate one without a remote, he did not know, but had been curious to find out.

Which led to their current situation.

"Do you think they saw us?" Chloe asked a little too loudly from their hiding place and the small group of aliens searching for them turned their heads in the direction they heard her from.

One of them pointed out their hiding place and Rush cursed under his breath and then said nastily to her, "They do now, yeh daft girl!"


	29. Sleep

**[****29] Sleep**

Sleep was welcomed by the wandering and lost crew members after they spent most of the day and night hopping from one world to the next in flight from the aliens they had encountered on numerous occasions so far. But Rush could not find sleep despite how tired he felt. He knew one of them had to keep watch just in case the aliens found them again.

Rush tried to stifle a yawn as he poked at the inner workings of the alien's version of the kino he had snitched from one of the pursuing parties. He had a sinking feeling that it was this device that allowed them to find them over and over again. The sensible thing to do was to get rid of it.

And yet they needed a kino.


	30. Wonder

**[****30] Wonder**

"Do you think they miss us?" Eli asked one night as they camped next to the stargate once more. Alien noises echoed from the forest around them, clarifying the activity of nocturnal life on the world they were on. "The _Destiny _crew?"

"I know Matt misses me," Chloe answered. "I wonder how long or if they still are searching for us?"

"By now they've probably given up," Rush said distractedly. He was still examining the alien kino they had stolen. "An' even if they hadn't, it is like trying ta find a needle in a haystack."


	31. Clutch

**[****31] Clutch**

Chloe did not let go of Doctor Rush as they both stared in terrified horror at the blue aliens they had thought were left behind in the last galaxy. If it had not been for Eli or Volker snapping them out of their catatonic states, they probably would have relived their abduction for real this time rather than the nightmares in their dreams.

"How did they find us?" Volker asked as he half dragged, half pushed Rush ahead of him. Eli was forced to carry Chloe after she fainted from fright.

"I dunna know an' don't wanna find out!"


	32. Chance

**[****32] Chance**

"I dunno about yew three, but I am not gonna be taken again," Rush declared defiantly when they discovered that the stargate was blocked by an alien fighter and the blue aliens were trying to operate the giant naquada ring.

"Hey, hey!" Eli exclaimed excitedly and shoved the remote he had been holding into Rush's hands. "_Destiny_ is here!"

The scientist furrowed his brow and then glared at the aliens blocking their only chance to get to the ship and safety. Volker looked at him and both men understood that there was no way they were going to get through without losing someone or the remote to the aliens.

"We canna allow them to use the stargate." Rush reluctantly stated and started backing away from their hiding place amongst the trees.


	33. Destroy

**[****33] Destroy**

How he would manage to destroy the alien fighter, neither Eli, Chloe or Volker knew but Chloe suspected it had to do with his time as a prisoner of the aliens and turning their own probes on them. What seemed like an eternity had passed for them, none of them were prepared for Rush's return and so jumped as he appeared beside them in the forest.

"Well... that was easy," he stated with finality.

"You're hurt." Chloe noticed him nursing his hand and Rush gave her a weak grin before wincing when she took it in her hand to examine.

"Tis nothin' but a bruise. I'll be fine. Though I canna say the same for the bloke I punched."

To emphasize his point, the alien fighter took that moment to explode.


	34. Storm

**[****34] Storm**

It rained.

Hard.

"It could be worse!" stated Eli as cheerfully as he could even though he did not feel one ounce cheerful. He and Chloe were huddled together while the two scientists were busy trying to get the stargate to work again. It was active but the wormhole was unstable and they all knew what that meant and neither of them were going to go through as long as it was like that. So for the foreseeable future, they were stuck.

In a storm.

"Didn't you say that on that time-traveling kino and things _did _get worse?" she asked him and Eli winced at the memory.

"Okay... so it _can_ potentially get worse!" Lightning and thunder erupted over their heads and all four of them ducked out of instinct. "But what are the odds that this planet also has deadly land-squid or the equivalent thereof?"

"You're the math boy, you tell me!"


	35. Leap

**[35] Leap**

"Trust me," Volker told Rush and the Scotsman grunted but said nothing to stop the astrophysicist from doing something he thought was utterly brainless. All around them was an open chasm save for what was directly behind the stargate. Across the chasm was a ruined structure they, or Rush, desperately wanted to see. There only problem was how to cross the chasm to the ruins.

"An' Eli says_ I'm_ crazy," Rush muttered as Volker stepped forward.

"It must be a scientist thing," Eli quipped. "You're not a scientist until you've gone completely bonkers!"

"Oh god, you two are just going to let him do it?"

"By all means, if he wants ta leap off a cliff on a hunch that there is a bridge, he can bloody well do it!"


	36. Scream

**[3****6] Scream**

Chloe screamed the moment Volker started going down. Rush and Eli hurried forward to try and catch him before he fell, but when Volker stopped falling a foot later all three of them stared at him in astonishment.

"I told you to trust me," Dale said smugly as he stood on what appeared to be thin air.

"Oh my god, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!" Eli exclaimed and slapped himself on the head.

"How in bloody hell did yeh know?"

"I noticed something odd when we were looking for a way across," Volker explained. "There's some kind of anti-gravity field. You can't see it but its there. It's not quite like in the movie, but close enough. Ow!"

"That's for nearly giving me a heart attack!" Chloe snapped after she smacked him on the arm hard enough to hurt.


	37. Fall

**[3****7] Fall**

"It reminds me of home," Chloe said as she plucked a falling, orange and red leaf from the air. "I miss it."

"So do I," Eli said beside her while he gazed around the new world they came upon. It looked pleasant enough and there was enough open space around them with the occasional turning tree here and there that they would be able to see trouble coming before it came. "At least back on Earth the only predator you have to worry about is the tax man."

"Alas we canna stay here," Rush said from behind them as the stargate hummed quietly. "However pleasant it may look."

"It's safe to go through," Volker interrupted next to them.


	38. Slander

**[3****8] Slander**

They sat around the campfire enjoying the beef jerky they made a few worlds back and talking. Eli was playing with the alien kino, trying to figure out everything that it did. So far they had learned that it could be a rolling camera, a tracking device, and something to annoy Rush with.

"So why did you drop out of M.I.T.?" Volker asked of the math whiz and the young man looked up a bit surprised at the question.

"Uh... M.I.T. just wasn't for me, I guess," he evaded.

"He was slandered by another student of cheatin' on a mathematics exam that would have gotten him a much needed scholarship," Rush answered nonchalantly from beside Chloe, his notebook on the Ancients in her lap. "Rather than stand his ground, he chose ta take the coward's way out an' dropped out."

"Hey, I did not take the coward's way out!" Eli protested a bit angrily.

"Then what do yew call it?"

"Uh..."


	39. Bind

**[3****9] Bind**

"Why is it that I am always the one that seems to get hurt?" Volker complained and winced as Chloe bound his broken fingers together with strips of cloth from his shirt.

"I warned yeh," Rush answered bitterly as he picked through the remains of what once had been an elaborate technological construct and which Volker had accidentally destroyed. "But no, yew had ta go ahead an' bloody touch the thing like some curious wee child."

"How was I suppose to know it would crumble apart?" the astrophysicist tried to defend himself and Rush stood up quickly.


	40. Accuse

**[****40] Accuse**

"Because yew never see the signs!" Rush accused angrily at the astrophysicist. "Just like yew couldna see the signs when _Destiny_ was runnin' out of power! Now," he gestured at the ruined construct, "the one chance we get ta study a piece of technology from the Ancients that lived in this galaxy is destroyed thanks to yeh!"

"That's really not fair, Rush, and you know it!" Volker argued back. "That thing... is a piece of junk and would have fallen apart regardless who touched it!"

"The fact is, yew touched it an' now its destroyed!"

"Enough!" Chloe shouted and stepped between the two scientists before things could escalate to the physical. "So he broke your new toy. Fix it! That's what you're good at are you not, Doctor Rush?"

The Scotsman blinked at her, dumbfounded.


	41. Experiment

**[****41] Experiment**

"I'm not eating that," Volker told Eli.

"Oh come on! Just try it," the drop out prodded. "You never know it might taste good."

"Putting random ground up plants and jerky into hot water is not going to make it taste good, Eli."

The young man looked at the scientist with a determined look. "Fine, no soup for you then." He then went off in search of the other two possible victims for his experiment into alien cooking.

"No," Rush said before he could even ask him. "I would like ta keep my health, thank yeh."

"Chloe?"

"Sorry, Eli, I'm already full on the jerky." Eli gave her a look that said he knew she was lying.


	42. Shiver

**[****42] Shiver**

He was the second one to succumb to the disease Volker had picked up from somewhere, several worlds ago. At first he had ignored the symptoms thinking it was the weather or environment flaring up old aches and pains. But then the shivers came and he knew he was in trouble.

"Nicholas, you need to drink this," Chloe prodded gently and the scientist refused from where he lay beside the campfire, unable to feel the warmth of the flames because of the cold shivers wracking his body.

"No," he said deliriously, another symptom of the disease. He knew he would fall unconscious soon from the fever and when he did, he was uncertain as to whether he would survive or not.

Volker barely did.


	43. Attack

**[****43] Attack**

They were not prepared nor had the means to repel an attack on themselves, especially when one of them was down from illness. As the aliens came out of the event horizon of the wormhole one by one, the _Destiny_ survivors tried to get away and disappear into the forest.

"Chloe, come on!" Eli called to her when she was not coming.

"I'm not leaving him!" she declared from Rush's unconscious side. She knew that if he was left behind he would be killed or worse, taken prisoner and tortured for information. They had gone through one alien abduction already, she was not about to let him go through it again alone this time.

Volker appeared at her side and grabbed Rush's arm and hulled him over his shoulders.

"Go!"


	44. Stumble

**[****44] Stumble**

"I thought we got rid of the tracking device in the alien kino, so how did they find us?" Eli exclaimed as he huffed for breath next to a tree after having moments ago ran for his life along side the others. He straightened when he heard alien voices off in the distance.

"I don't know, random chance perhaps?" Volker answered. He still had Rush over his shoulders and the man did not appear to be waking up any time soon.

"Here they come!"

The trio, exhausted, half ran and half stumbled through the forest ahead of the pursuing aliens.


	45. Lose

**[****45] Lose**

The energy blasts tore chunks out of the trees all around them.

Eli jumped over a fallen trunk as one hit it where his feet had been moments before. "We are so going to ahh!" he screamed as he was propelled forward from one impacting into him from behind.

"Eli!" Chloe cried and hurried to his side.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" He reassured and climbed to his feet, the backpack he had been wearing smoked behind him. He started running again but then after a few minutes he abruptly stopped and swore.

"Come on!" Volker urged.

"I've lost the remote!"


	46. Defeat

**[****46] Defeat**

"_Cha'ka po'ta luni!"_ he heard through the haze of a fever-induced sleep. Something itchy scratched at his cheek.

"_Ow! I'm kneeling, I'm kneeling!_" he heard Eli say and wondered why the young man would be kneeling in the first place. Then the strange language was heard again and his mind finally remembered where he had heard it before.

_Not them..._ he thought as he tried to stop the groan from surfacing. Rush peeled his eyes open and saw his companions on their knees with their hands on their heads. Around them were the aliens they had encountered before and stolen from.

One of them turned a golden eye on him.


	47. Trial

**[****47] Trial**

The room they found themselves in hours later after their surrender to the reptilian like aliens, was circular and large. It almost reminded Eli of the Senate building in Episode I except it wasn't quite that big nor had floating sections. Reptilians sat in the various tiered balconies, eying the four humans curiously and in disdain. In front of them in a higher elevated balcony were three aliens of importance. The one in the middle hammered an intricate stone the size of his hand against the wide podium and all went quiet in the chamber.

Words were said that neither of the humans could understand but when a visual representation of Rush stealing the alien kino and killing a reptilian that caught him in the act appeared, all four immediately understood what was happening.

"We're on trial," breathed Eli.


	48. Murder

**[****48] Murder**

"How are we suppose to defend ourselves if we cannot communicate with them?" Volker rhetorically asked as the aliens around them started protesting at the apparent speech of what they assumed was the prosecutor.

"We don't," Rush said worriedly. Most of the holographic recordings the aliens had was of himself stealing the alien kino and either killing (which was only one as far as he knew) or hurting the reptilians trying to stop him as he escaped with the others. "They know we can't speak their language an' they got enough damning evidence right there to convict us of theft an' murder if they so pleased."

"We're doomed."


	49. Sentence

**[****49] Sentence**

Although they could not understand a single word being spoken by the reptilian aliens, it was rather obvious the outcome of the day long trial was when the alien spectators roared and hissed their approval of the tribunal judges' sentence of the humans.

The middle judge hissed and growled out the sentence in their language, pointing a clawed finger at the group before gesturing at their guards to take them away. It took two to subdue Doctor Rush when he fought back, determined to not be taken away and subjected to whatever sentence the aliens had in mind.

Chloe understood his panic and felt like doing the same but she was too frightened and cowed to try anything. She hoped that they were not going to be sentenced to death and fervently wished that Lieutenant Scott was there to save them.


	50. Prison

**[****50] Prison**

They were taken to another world, a barren one with barely breathable air and a sun beating down on them with enough heat to make it feel like they were in Death's Valley. When they entered the prison that was built into the side of a gorge that would put the Grand Canyon to shame, the four humans were physically examined, anything they had on themselves that was not taken before was taken away then, before they were finally bound together by magnetic binders roped together by energy.

"I know what you're thinking, Rush," Volker whispered as they were led deeper into what sounded like a mining prison. "Even if we managed to get out of this prison, without the remote we're stuck on this world."


	51. Improvise

**[51] Improvise**

They had no weapons except what was around them. Laser cutters meant for mining hard to get ore turned into impromptu 'phaser rifles' as Eli called them. They had no means to dial the stargate so they stole one from the dead guards. They had no idea where they were going once they managed to get out of the mine, so Rush hacked into an alien console for a map. When their impromptu escape attempt failed after running into a dead end made by a recent cave in that had not been updated on the prison's schematics, the four humans chose not to give up quite yet.

The alien's mistake after throwing them back into their cell?

Keeping them together.


	52. Escape

**[52] Escape**

The first attempt they tried in escaping, Rush explained it had been an experiment to test the waters so to speak. "To properly escape, we needed information. Now we know the way out, that these laser cutters make effective weapons and the reptiles with the brighter scales have the remotes and most importantly, these particular aliens are not too bright."

"How do you come to that conclusion?" Volker questioned as he stared disgustedly at the food the aliens served their prisoners. He did not want to know what it had once been or is now.

"If they were smart, they would have separated us."

"So when do we try again?" It was Chloe who asked.


	53. Remote

**[5****3] Remote**

"I found it!" Eli cried from several yards away from the shattered log he had jumped over in their failed flight from the aliens. He held up the remote he had lost during that desperate attempt to flee and the others gathered around him looking worse for wear. It had been two days since they had successfully escaped from the alien penal colony using their own technology against them.

Two days of back tracking and searching for the world where Eli had lost the remote.

Two days of lost time.

"Now we can get back on course for _Destiny_," Rush said, elated.


	54. Injection

**[5****4] Injection**

"Oh god, get it OFF!" Chloe begged in Eli's arms as Doctor Volker and Doctor Rush tried to figure out how to get the venomous creature off of her leg. A whip-like tail had embedded itself into her calf and was injecting it's venom into her. Rush was certain if they had not placed a tourniquet just below her knee, she probably would be unconscious by now or worse dead.

"Easy, lass," Rush reassured and handed Volker the hot stone dagger he recently made and heated just for this.

"Here goes..."

Volker took a deep breath and with a nod to Chloe and Eli, he lowered the glowing dagger with steady hands he thought he would never have had.


	55. Instrument

**[5****5] Instrument**

The ancient device resembled something they would have found on _Destiny_ and yet it was not Ancient. Doctor Rush inspected it as best as he could without his glasses, something he had regrettably lost on the penal colony, and although the writing on the device was written with the Alteran script, the words used, however, made no sense to him.

"Just like the last two ruins," he muttered and tossed the useless scrap of metal aside.

"I thought the ships came unmanned?" Chloe stated curiously as she ran a hand over another stone work with Alteran script.

"They did," Rush answered.

"So how is it that there are three worlds with Ancient technology and writing?" Volker pointed out from where he stood atop of a pile of stones that once had been a building of some sort.

"Because the people who built these places are not Alterans."


	56. Choke

**[5****6] Choke**

"I thought you said it was safe?" complained Eli as he choked on the acrid air they found themselves breathing, but at least they could breath. Rush coughed, his face covered by the military issue bandanna he had. He squinted through the smoke at the stargate, waiting for the last person to come through so he could dial to the next address.

"It is... ta some degree!" Rush said loudly, the roar of moving lava nearly drowning out his words.

"I don't think choking on volcanic ash is what I call safe!" Eli yelled.

"Would yew like ta go back an' watch that ELE?"*

* * *

*ELE stands for Extinction Level Event, such as a mile-wide asteroid impacting a planet


	57. Dog

**[5****7] Dog**

"Merry Christmas," Eli said as he plopped himself down next to Chloe by the campfire they had made for themselves again, it was snowing lightly around them setting the mood perfectly for the holiday. "I would have gotten you a present but, the nearest mall is several billion light years away and with gas prices these days, I'd run out of money before I got there."

Chloe smiled at his attempt to lighten the mood and she rested her head against his shoulder. "You're the best present a friend could ask for, Eli."

"Oh I don't know... a puppy might top that," Eli grinned.

"Yew just made yourself beneath a _dog_, Eli." Rush interjected from where he sat.


	58. Discovery

**[5****8] Discovery**

"Ha! I don't believe it," exclaimed Rush as he stepped out onto the plateau and gazed down into the unnatural gorge that scarred the surface of the desert like world they found themselves on. He shielded his eyes from the glaring twin suns to stare at what fascinated him so. "This explains everythin'!"

"How so?" Chloe asked.

It was Volker who answered, "The Ancient script we kept seeing, the reversed engineered technology, the ruins... it all came from here!"

"Yes an' look, they turned her into a city!" the Scotsman exclaimed as he started down a well-worn switch back path.


	59. Seed

**[5****9] Seed**

"Amazin', isn't she?" Rush said as he ran a hand over the corroded hull, feeling the texture of the ancient metal, and gazing upward into the depths. "I never thought we would see one of these."

"It's a seeder ship," Volker stated for their two younger friends.

"Um... guys," Eli said nervously. "We're not alone."

Rush and Volker stopped admiring the seeder ship turned city to see what threat had reared its ugly head at them this time.

"What was that about these ships being unmanned?" Chloe quipped.


	60. Human

**[****60] Human**

Doctor Rush observed everything he saw as the "Alterans" led them through the ancient starship and deeper into the city. The more he saw, the more he came to understand that these humans were not the Alterans who built and launched the seeder ship. The clothing they wore was primitive, something like he would have found in Earth's own history of the last ten thousand years. Yet they were armed with advanced weaponry and seemed to understand how to operate parts of the ship that was still operational.

"I don't understand," Volker asked as their human guide gestured for them to enter a chamber that looked similar to the Observation Deck but without the windows. "What happened to these people?"

"I think those reliefs tell us all."


	61. History

**[****61] History**

A fiery ball plunged through the night sky,

Her arrival a sign of change to the primitives.

A city erected out of her remains,

Thousands of years would pass.

Her technology studied and duplicated,

Her written language adopted.

An Empire born from the stargates,

A hundred worlds strong.

A versatile race discovered in her databanks,

New slaves grown and put to work.

Generations of oppression would pass,

Then the slaves grew restless and revolted.

On the brink of defeat, a _deity_ appeared and brought salvation,

A plague ravaged the masters into extinction.

The human _god_ never heard from again,

"An' all that remains are the slaves," Rush whispered as he took a glance at their human hosts.


	62. Acid

**[****62] Acid**

"I once encountered an insect that spit a corrosive poison at you," said Eli as he and the others backed away from a six legged insect about the size of a car. It walked on four and used the other two like a praying mantis. A corrosive acid seeped from underneath its mandibles as it approached, clacking with strange sounds.

"An' where exactly would yew have encountered such a creature in your hometown?" Rush dared to ask as his back hit stone and they found themselves trapped.

"In the sand desert of Tanaris," the gamer replied and Rush groaned.


	63. Earth

**[****63] Earth**

The magnificent view they had of the jungle moon's parent planet was breath taking. When Volker had said the night sky was stunning while they waited for him to tell them it was safe to go through, they had not given it a second thought until they had arrived themselves.

"Wow..." Chloe breathed as she stared up at the rising planet in all her blue and green glory. "It's beautiful."

"I think that continent looks like South America," Eli pointed out in a wistful tone. "A little bit anyway, if you squint hard enough."

Rush did not even look up to stare at the alien world.


	64. Fire

**[****64] Fire**

Once more they found themselves sitting around a campfire talking about anything and everything except for Rush who kept to himself studying the ancient artifact they had procured from the Alteran humans of this galaxy. They had no use for it when Rush discovered it, but it was most likely they just did not know what it did so they were quite willing to let them have it.

But Rush had an idea and every moment they were not busy traveling through the gates to catch up to _Destiny_, he was busy trying to figure out how to make it work or what it did exactly.

A tiny pebble hit him in the shoulder, startling him and he looked up to see his three companions look at him like he was an insane workaholic. "What?"

"Can't you stop working on that thing for one moment and enjoy a quiet evening by the fire for a change?" Chloe challenged him.


	65. Air

**[****65] Air**

"What I wouldn't give for fresh air," Rush complained for once in their journey. He held up his kerchief to his face in an attempt to not breath the stale air of death that the abandoned and destroyed city reeked of. Volker knelt beside the remains of an alien exoskeleton with it's decaying insides still partially intact. Behind them was the stargate still with an active wormhole from the last planet they had visited.

"What do you think happened here," Chloe asked.

"Maybe this canister has something to do with it?" Eli gestured toward the ground but did not attmept to pick it up. Alien language was written all over it and it's design was far different from those on Earth's, however there was no mistaking it's purpose.

"We should leave. Who knows how long ago this was an' if any of that chemical is still left in the air," Rush said and deactivated the stargate.


	66. Water

**[****66] Water**

They had decided to take a couple days rest so they could gather both food and water as well as clean themselves up. Even though they had managed to retake most of what they had lost to the reptilians after their escape from the penal colony, they still needed the essentials for survival. However, taking a bath in a waterfall spring was a luxury none of them could pass up on.

Not even Rush.

So when he had finished and discovered that his clothing was missing, he swore that he would fore go bathing until they returned to _Destiny_.

"ELI!"

"I didn't do it!" came the quick reply which was quickly followed by feminine giggles.


	67. River

_Apologies for the long wait, been busy with college lately_

_

* * *

_

**[****67] River**

The life giving liquid flowed down his arm in a steady stream, following the contour of muscle and fat and diverting its path where the tiny hairs were too strong to plow over like a rushing torrent. It reminded Eli very much like a river, moving where the land made it go but in his case it was the very skin of his flesh that directed it from its cascading source at his shoulder.

He should have been worried that his mind was more concerned about solving the ancient puzzle and that he found the solution in his own bleeding arm than the fact that he was bleeding and dying.

"Eridanus?" Chloe repeated incredulously as she held a hand against his wound.

"He's goin' into shock," Rush explained.


End file.
